"Becasue the two kids are so close together, i didn't have time to lose my first pregnancy weight, so i want to rein in my weight so i dont gain as much as with my first," Sulimani said.
Natalie's seeing a nutritionist to avoid the forty-five pound weight gain she had with her first pregnancy. She'll have a healthier pregnancy according to the study, which found that women who gained more than 40 pounds during pregnancy had twice the chance of having an overweight baby, more than nine pounds.
Big babies are linked to pregnancy complications.
"Those include increased risk of c-section, but if woman delivers vaginally, increased risk of injury to both mother and baby," Dr. Amos Grunebaum of New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell said.
To avoid problems, women should eat nutrition rich foods, salmon, whole grain products, fruits and vegetables. A healthy calorie intake? Just 300 calories additional each day.
That's a serving of nonfat yogurt with some granola and berries, or a piece of whole wheat toast with two tablespoons of peanut butter.
That small increase in calories is just enough to add just the right number of pounds during the nine months.
" For your average normal weight individual, you're really shooting for a 25 to 30 pound weight gain," said Marissa Lippert, R.D.
Dr. Grunebaum makes the point that healthy eating should begin before conception, and that women do best when they are at their ideal weight at the start of the pregnancy. He says its hard to keep weight under control during those nine months when overweight is present at the outset.
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